Babbystuck
by skitskat24
Summary: Also known as: In Which the Characters are all Babies in an Alternate Universe and Baby John Egbert Meets Grub Karkat Vantas for the First Time and Various Baby Shenanigans Ensue. Rating may change as we watch our boys grow up into awkward teens.
1. Prologue

Your name is John Egbert. You are currently one year old, and you are about to make a new friend. There are a bunch of weird looking wriggly things your daddy called grubs (before he left you at this place) with you at what your daddy calls day-care. You're not sure what this means, but you like it here. The two ladies here are nice and you've made a lot of friends like Dave and Rose and Jade, but you've never tried to play with any of the grubs until now. Today is different.

Today is different because you notice one of the grubs off all on their own. They're a bright red and their hair is a mess and you notice that they have candy corn growing out of their head. The other grubs try to talk to them, but they seem to either ignore them or push them away, looking particularly angry. You wonder what's wrong with the grub, and what has them so frazzled, so you crawl your way over to the part of the room where the grub has encased himself in a building block castle that makes you wonder how he built it as he has no hands, just little legs.

You plop yourself down in front of the castle and the grub stares up at you with black eyes. You give what you think is a him a smile and say hello. He gives you a little squeak back.

You take that as a hello, albeit an angry one.

"Wann' b' f'ends?" You ask, your teeth (especially your top front teeth that are too big and kinda poke out of your mouth a bit) showing as you smile more.

You get an angry growl, his sharp little teeth showing, and he twists around and hides back in his castle.

You frown, sad that he rejected you, and you start to sniffle a little bit because you don't know what to do because no one's ever told you no when you asked to be friends. You're upset and all you can think to do is cry as tears start rolling down your cheeks and your lip trembles.

Then he turns back around, looking at you in what you could only assume to be shock while you bring your chubby hands up to your eyes to try to get rid of the tears while you cry.

He inches ever so slightly out of his castle and puts one of his front little legs on your knee. You look down at him, still paps you lightly with his little leg, making what sounds like a "shoosh" noise as he does so.

You're still for a minute, the tears stopping as you watch him attempt to console you. You realize that maybe he DOES want to be friends.

You smile widely at him, the tears gone and little giggles bubbling up as you pat his head and he growls at you but doesn't move away.

And on that day, an epic friendship was born.


	2. Chapter 1

~1 ½ year old, a little more than half a solar sweep~

Your name is John Egbert, and you are very excited! Today is a Saturday, so not only do you get to spend a ton of time with your daddy, but your friend Karkat is coming over to play! You've learned your grubby friend's name after a few days of playing together at the day-care place. One of the ladies there –the one with the horns like Karkat- told you whilst feeding you applesauce at snack time. She called you and him inseperibel, whatever that means.

You are currently in your crib, grabbing onto the bars to help keep you upright. You're still not too great at this whole walking thing, but Daddy was so excited when you started doing it that you're trying to get better at it. You look at your window and you can see light through the blocky, shady thingies that Daddy puts down when he puts you to bed. You want to start the day already! Karkat's coming and you want some Daddy playtime before that!

What do you do?

"DADDEH! UP! UP! UP!"

You scream of course.

You continue like this for a while until your door opens and Daddy shuffles in with a cup of weird smelling stuff in his jammies. You smile and laugh at how funny Daddy looks with his hair all messed up like that, and Daddy smiles back as he puts down his smelly drink and hoists you up out of the crib and OVER HIS HEAD.

Woah.

This is SO COOL.

You laugh even harder as he spins you around, laughing as well. This is why you love Saturdays! Daddy's always extra fun on Saturdays! He's smiling all big as he brings you down and gives you one of those nose-rubby things, "es-i-mo keesus" or something like that.

After some more playing, you get dressed, had some numnums and watched some stuff on the "teebee". You don't know how this big shiny box could be considered a bee, or why it has that hot, smelly stuff that Jade's grandpa likes (but isn't the hot, smelly stuff Daddy likes), but no matter, you like it when it shows Kippur. After the "teebee" stuff, Daddy pull out his big trunk and you laugh and clap because you know Daddy's big trunk means he's going to show you some cool magic tricks! You love his tricks! You try to mimick him when he does his card tricks, but it's hard to hold onto the cards and you always drop them, which makes Daddy laugh and then that makes you laugh and soon enough you're both laughing until you hear the bell noise that means someone's hear to visit.

"KAWKAT-TUH! KAWKAT-TUH!"

"Yeah, son, Karkat and his daddy are here to play! Wanna go get 'em?"

"Yeah! Yeah! Le's go!"

He picks you up and holds you in one arm as you two get up and open the door. Now, you have never met Karkat's daddy before, but from what your daddy has told you 'bout him, he's not very happy. In fact, he's usually angry. All the time. But he's actually a pretty nice man, and he apparently looks a lot like Karkat.

You wonder if this "man" is actually a grub too.

Your daddy opens the door, and the first thing you notice is the tall grey man with sharp teeth and crazy hair and horns! Little, nubby ones, but still horns! He's scowling, and his eyes are yellow, ringed with red around the black dot in the middle. He's…

He's SCARY!

You start to whimper, tears in your eye, and you cling to your dad, still looking at the scary monster-man. You then notice Karkat appearing on Monster-Man's shoulder.

"Now, now, son! Meet Mr. Vantas, Karkat's daddy!"

Oh. OHHHHH.

He's just Karkat's daddy.

Who else would he be? You shake your head and dry your tears and smile up at him.

"Hi Mistew VVV…Vuh… Vennn… Vantus!"

You notice his frown lessen a bit, and you can see him smile a bit.

"Hello, John. It's nice to finally meet my son's new friend, finally," He says, leaning down a bit so your face to face, and you smile, your "buck teef" showing more. You then hear Karkat give a little growl, then a small squeak that you guess is a hello.

"Hi Kawkat-tuh!" You smile even wider, wriggling in your daddy's arms to try and get closer. You get just close enough that Karkat can stretch himself over to you and crawl down your back, then up onto your daddy's shoulder. You laugh 'cause his little feet tickle like CRAZY down your back, even if they're a little pokey. He growls at his daddy, giving him a series of squeaks that you assume is his goodbye to his daddy, whose face isn't smiling but isn't frowning either.

"Alright, I'm off. Karkat, be nice! No biting anything but food! I'll be back to pick him up at three, alright?"

"Of course. Say goodbye to Mr. Vantas you two!"

"Bah bah Mistew Vantus!"

"SQUEAK."

He waves bye-bye, gives us a smile, and the walks off as your daddy shuts the door, bringing you back to your playroom where you and daddy were playing earlier and puts you two down on the really soft carpet. Your toys are all over, set out especially so you could figure out what to play next easily if you got bored of whatever game you were playing before.

"Alright boys, I'll be just outside watching a little TV and doing some grown up work. If you need anything, just shout… or squeak. I'll come get you for snack time and nap time, alright? Have fun!" And with that, Daddy shut the door, leaving you and Karkat to figure what you wanted to do first.

"So what y'wann' do furst, Kawkat-tuh?"

"GRRRRRR… SQUEAK SQUEAK!" Karkat crawled over towards all your blocks, pointing at them with one of his front feet.

"Wann' buil' a cas'le?"

"SQUEAK!" He gave a little nod and started pulling out the big blocks as you start pulling out the big blocks.

Once you had built the castle, you decided] to be king and queen of your castle! You was the king and Karkat was the queen, although he didn't like being the queen very much. Then you played little music thingies Jade's Grandpa got you to "inrick your mind" or something. You played the one where you bang the stick on the top of the big, round thing and it makes the little banging noise, while Karkat tried to play the one where you press the little pushy things and noise comes out. He wasn't very good, mostly because all his legs got in the way and it sounded all jumbled and weird. You at least made the right sound with your instrument, so you think you were better.

Then you became monsters and destroyed your castle from earlier.

Then Daddy came in for snack time! When did that happen! Karkat's only been here for a little bit! …Right?

You had applesauce, Cheerios, and grape juice. Karkat got… something. The grubs always got really weird snacks. You asked him once if it was good, and you got a nod and a happy squeak in response… at least the Karkat version of a happy squeak, which is basically not an angry squeak.

Karkat sure is weird.

After that, Daddy brought you into your room, and set you both down in your crib. Snack time left you full and sleepy. He gave you each a kiss on the hair, and covered you in your soft, green blankie. Your blankie was the perfect blankie. It was soft and fuzzy, but you never got too hot or too cold in it, so you were always comfy when you slept.

Daddy walks out of the room, shutting off the lights. The room isn't completely dark, as the light from behing the window covery thing lets in a little light, and you also have your green ghosty nightlight, which was always comforting. You look at Karkat through sleepy eyes, and before you fall asleep, you feel him wriggle closer to you and you put and arm on his side as you both fall asleep.

It was a good day.


	3. Chapter 2

~2 years old, approximately 2 months and 4 days till one solar sweep~

~April 13th, 1998~

Your name is John Egbert, and it's your birthday today! You have a vague understanding of what that means, but you mostly know that it means cake and presents and a party! You're two years old now, and Daddy said that he invited Dave, Rose, Jade, and all of the grubs from daycare! You're really excited to have all of your chums here! You can only wonder what they got you for a present!

You became friends with the grubs mostly through Karkat, and you got your normal friends to be friends with them too. You mostly play around Karkat and Vriska, but you get along with most of the others, too. Dave likes to play with Tavros and Gamzee, and also sometimes Sollux when Sollux isn't playing with the number blocks constantly. Rose seems to get along well with Kanaya, they're both really quiet and they like to draw a lot, but sometimes Kanaya will make them play dress-up. Jade is friends with almost everyone! Seriously, one minute she'll be playing princess with Feferi and then the next minute she'll be off adventuring with Aradia and Terezi..

You think the grubs are really cool.

It's almost time for the party to start when you hear the doorbell ring. Your daddy is blowing up one last balloon (bright green, of course) as he answers the door. You don't know who's here, you're busy playing with this cool truck Nanna sent from her house. You haven't seen Nanna in a long time. Your daddy says it's because Nanna's REALLY old and she can't move around too much anymore so she has to stay home. You decide to ask daddy if you could visit Nanna soon, maybe bring her some birthday cake.

Then, all of a sudden, a tiny Eridan is plopped in front of you. He lets out a little squeak and you look up at your dad wondering "What the heck is he doin' here?"

"Hey son, Eridan's dad had to drop him off early, so you play nice until the others get here, alright?"

"O-Okay Daddy!"

Your daddy smiles and goes into the kitchen, and you turn your attention to the purple grub that's crawled into the bed of your dumptruck.

"Hi Ewidan!"

"squeak."

He inspects your new truck thoroughly, and he wiggles a little, as if trying to get it to move. You get an idea and start to push him around in your truck. At first he's all surprised and makes a noise that sounded like "nyeh!", then you think he's having fun because he's squeaking like Nepeta with her kitty picture book.

You continue like this for a while until Dave, Feferi, and Tavros show up, and you decide that you should play with Eridan more often. He's pretty fun if you give him a chance.

Your daddy gathers you all up and puts you in your playroom, and shortly after that Rose, Kanaya, and Aradia show up. Eventually, your playroom is filled with all the grubs, each grub and kid doing something different. You and Karkat are attempting to paint one another with fingerpaints. Karkat came out like a red and black blobby thing, you came out… scribbly. You can kinda sorta make out your head, so you give him a smile and a thumbs up.

After a big game of hide and seek (which got complicated because you couldn't make out the grubs' squeaks as often as you'd hoped), your daddy comes in and says it's time for cake! Your daddy, Mr. Vantas, Rose's mommy, and Kanaya's mommy stayed around to help out, and they helped get us in our proper seats.

You're all anxiously squeaking and giggling until the lights get dimmer and Daddy brings out a round cake with your favorite green ghosty on it! There are two candles on top, and the adults are singing the birthday song and all your friends look so happy and soon you and Daddy are blowing out the candles and doling out cake.

Karkat immediately starts eating his cake, pretty much massacring it within the first couple seconds.

You think you couldn't be happier. You smile and dive right in to yummy chocolate cake.

~June 18th, 1998; one solar sweep plus one Earth day~

Your name is John Egbert, and you're worried.

You haven't seen any of the grubs in a while. About a week ago the grubs all got sick, and yesterday the seemed to disappear completely! Not even Daddy seems to know where they've gone. You visited Nanna a while ago and asked her what you should do, and she said that maybe you should go see Karkat's daddy and see if he's okay.

Your daddy called Mr. Vantas, and Daddy said he'd take you over so Mr. Vantas could explain to you what's going on.

You're currently walking next to your daddy, holding his hand tightly.

"…Do you fink Kawkat's okay, Daddy?"

He looks down at you with a reassuring smile. "Son, I'm sure Karkat's dad will explain everything. Karkat's daddy really loves Karkat, and I doubt anyone who loves their kid as much as he does would let something bad happen to them. Karkat is fine, John. Don't worry."

"…Do you wuv me as mush as Kawkat's daddy?"

"Son, I love you more than you could ever know."

After that, you smile at each other and he puts you up on his shoulders for the rest of the walk over. You feel much better now.

When you get to Karkat's house, Mr. Vantas is waiting for you on the porch swing of his house. You and your daddy say hello, and Mr. Vantas give you both a nod before looking at you.

"Don't worry kid, Karkat's okay. But something has happened to him and you may be a little weirded out by it. But he's perfectly fine, don't worry. Come inside, I'll show you."

"He motions you two to follow him, and Daddy lifts you off him and onto the ground so you can attempt to run after Mr. Vantas.

You hope you'll have longer legs at some point. Your legs are too nubby to run right.

Mr. Vantas leads you up to Karkat's room. The door is closed, and he stops you before you can try to open it.

"Remember, Karkat's fine, but something a little weird has happened to him, so don't freak out, okay?" He taps you on the nose with one of his yellow-clawed fingers.

You nod, and he opens the door. You notice that nothing appears very out of place.

Until you see the big, red cocoon in the corner of the room.

"…Is that…Kawkat?"

Mr. Vantas nods and leads you toward the big cocoon, crouching down to your level a few feet away. Your daddy is close behind, a little shocked at the scene as well.

"You see, John, when grubs are one solar sweep old –a little older than two years old for you- they start to go through a change. They make this cocoon, and they stay in there for a long time so they can change from a wriggler into a little troll, which is what I am.

"He's perfectly fine in there John, but it'll be a long time before Karkat comes out. A really long time. About a year, actually. But when he comes out, he'll look like you! You can visit whenever you like, too! Okay, John?"

You look at the cocoon because _HOLY GHOSTIES YOUR BEST BUDDY IS IN THERE!_, then back to Mr. Vantas.

"…O-Okay! But Imma be comin ev'ry week until he's outta there!"

Mr. Vantas and your Daddy smile at you with pride.

~3 years old, one and a little more than half a solar sweep~

~June 17th, 1999~

Your name is John Egbert, and you _swear_ you just felt Karkat move.

You've been here every week since you found out Karkat was in a big cocoon-pod-thingamajiger. Mr. Vantas lets you in without a second thought now. You come in every week, sit yourself down in front of the cocoon, and tell him all about your week. You tell him about your playdates with Dave, how you and Rose had to sit through Beauty and the Beast over and over because her mom loved that movie, how you, Jade, and Jade's dog Bec scared Dave so bad his glasses fell off and got a scolding (and a high five) from Bro.

You told him how you missed him. You told him you hoped he'd be out soon so you could play together again.

And today, after telling him this, you felt the cocoon move.

You've watched the cocoon get maybe three times its original size, and now, you felt it move.

You freeze.

It moves again, more this time.

"MR. VANTAS! KAWKAT'S MOVIN'!"

The cocoon is now wriggling around, and Mr. Vantas is next to you so fast it's amazing.

*CRACK*

Suddenly, there's a big crack in the smooth shell of the cocoon, and it's getting bigger and bigger and red goopy stuff is coming out until…

*CR-CRACK*

*PLOP*

"K…Kawkat?"

Lo and behold, a grey, red, and black blob falls out of the cocoon, maybe a little smaller than you and very naked.

Mr. Vantas grabs the towels you realize he had set down near you and picks up Karkat up in one. He cradles him close, gently wiping off the ooze and making this odd purring noise.

It reminds you of when Daddy would wrap you up in your blankie and sway and hum to you to get you to sleep.

As the goop is cleared away, you can finally make out his grey face, his little fangs poking out, his candy corn horns and messy black hair.

He looks just like before! …Minus the grub body, of course. Now he looks normal!

"…J…Jo…John…"

He opens his eyes –big and yellow and _cool_- and looks around. He first smiles at his dad, who still has him cradled and swaddled in towels.

Then he looks over at you. You stare at him in awe like you have been since he fell out of his cocoon.

His smile from before turns into a fierce scowl.

"What the heck are YOU lookin' at, jerkbutt? Haven't you ever seen a little troll before, Egbert? Oh wait, I forgot, you haven't. Sorry. But I'm not some wild clawbeast at the zoo, idiot! Stop staring!"

You smile. Your best friend is back.


	4. Chapter 3

~One and a little more than half of a solar sweep~

Your name is Gamzee Makara, and you hatched from your cocoon a few hours ago.

Your dad was right there with you, which was a miracle to you. Your dad was the ringmaster of one of the greatest circuses in the country, and naturally this meant that he was away a lot of the time. You know he cares and misses you a lot, but you can't help but feel a little resentful when he leaves you alone.

But you're never completely on your own, so you're thankful for all your great friends. Especially Tavros. Tavros is your best buddy ever! You're so excited to play with him on two legs, now! Daddy doesn't like being around the Nitrams too much. He thinks they're lovely people, but apparently back on your home planet Tavros's family was very low on the social scale, while your daddy was almost at the very top. He's not used to being on equal ground with people who used to be below him, and sometimes he'll get nervous and freak out and say some weird stuff. No one wants him to freak out, so they're fine with seeing less of him in person.

You kinda wonder why everyone's so scared of your daddy freaking out.

Right now, you're curled up under a blanket on the couch, already in your new clothes and all washed up. You and your dad are awaiting messages from everyone else at daycare to say they've hatched (although technically the messages are typed by their parents). So far, you've gotten messages from Nepeta, Terezi, Eridan, Equius, Kanaya, Sollux, and a picture from Karkat's dad of Karkat and John snuggled up in John's blankie, all hatched. You hope Tavros sends you a picture too! You'll bet he looks really awesome!

Soon, Feferi sends a message, then Vriska, then Aradia. No sign of Tavros yet.

You wait a bit longer.

Then longer.

Then longer.

Until you get a frantic message from Mrs. Nitram.

Apparently something went wrong when Tavros hatched. Something went very, very wrong. He's in the hospital.

You look to your dad, and he looks back. Both of your yellow eyes are wide and scared.

You both run (you stumble a bit, not used to the new legs yet), grab your coats, and simply reply that you're on your way whether they like it or not.

~A car ride to the hospital later~

You're greeted by Mr. Nitram at the entrance to the emergency room. He looks worried, although glad to see you. You run (and stumble) over to him and grab his leg and look up at him.

"I-Is Tavbro okay, Mr. Nitram?"

"Uh… We… We don't know yet, Gamzee," he looks to your dad, his hand petting your hair, "The doctors say that something went wrong when he… he pupated. It's, uh, his legs. When he hatched, they came out all twisted and, uhh, sticking out at odd angles. They're performing surgery on him right now. They said it's gonna be quite a few, uhh, hours."

You look to your dad, who looks slightly uncomfortable but more worried than anything. He gives you a nod, and you nod back.

"We're staying with you! Tavbro has to be okay! Y-You'll see!"

Mr. Nitram gives you a warm smile and a hug. You hug back tight.

You refuse to lose one of the most important people in your life.

~More or less four hours later, 11:46 PM~

You lean on your dad's shoulder, trying to keep your eyes open. You are very tired, but you have to stay awake! You have to make sure Tavros is okay! Your dad's huge, messy hair makes a good pillow, but you HAVE to fight it! But you're losing this battle and you don't know how long you can keep your eyes open.

Just when you're about to drift off, a troll lady in a white coat comes up to you and the Nitrams and asks if you were Tavros's family and/or friends. Your eyes shoot open. You are wide awake now.

Apparently, Tavros is completely fine. But they had to remove his legs, otherwise it could seriously hurt him later on. You're frozen as Mrs. Nitram explains this to you, tears in her eyes. Mrs. Nitram is a human like John and Dave, and she is one of the nicest ladies ever. EVER.

You're frozen because you know Tavros doesn't have legs

You're frozen because your best friend will never be able to run and play with you like you both had hoped.

You're frozen because that must have been so painful to have your legs removed and you weren't there to comfort him

You're frozen because this is the first time you've ever seen a grown up cry before.

And you're burying your face into her chest because such a lovely, nice person like her shouldn't ever cry. Ever.

The troll doctor tells you that you can see him now, but he won't be awake. That's fine, and you all follow her down a few hallways and stop at one of the rooms.

You open the door and inside is your best buddy. With normal arms and a normal head and a normal torso, but small nubs could be seen in the medicinal recooperacoon. He looks so small, but you are relieved to see that he looks peaceful and isn't in any pain. The doctor leaves you all alone to be with him, and your dad sets you down. His parents rush to the side of his 'coon, while you –somewhat awkwardly- climb up the side of the red recooperacoon and slowly climb in next to him. The 'coon isn't deep, but you stay on your knees so you don't ruin your new clothes. You reach out and hold his hand. His hand is slightly smaller than yours, same as the rest of him. And in that moment, you forget.

You forget that he doesn't have legs.

You forget that you'll never be able to run and play together like you both had hoped.

You forget that this whole mess even happened.

You squeeze his hand with both of your hands, gentle enough that your claws don't scratch his new, soft skin.

Tavros is okay. You'll both be okay.

You have to be okay.

~The next morning~

You're awoken by a gentle nudge in the shoulder. You don't know when you fell asleep, but you must've been taken home because you're in your new recooperacoon in your new room. You open your bleary eyes up at your dad and he gives you a gentle smile. You smile back as he lifts you out of the recooperacoon and dries off the slime. You kinda wonder what it tastes like, but your dad explained that rule number one with your recooperacoon is never, ever eat the slime. It will mess you up.

You still wanna taste it.

As he helps dress you, he tells you all about Tavros's current condition. He's perfectly fine, and he woke up maybe an hour and a half ago. You look at him expectantly, and he assures you that you'll be visiting him right after breakfast. As soon as you have your shirt on, you grin and run down the stairs towards the kitchen, while your dad chuckles and follows behind you, catching up to you easily and lifting you onto his shoulder. He puts you down on the counter and fixes up four Eggo waffles for the two of you, plus some strawberries and two cups full of orange juice.

You both take breakfast very seriously. It's the most important meal of the day, you know.

Once you're both done, you're off to the hospital. You think today will be a better day.

~One ride to the hospital and walk to Tavro's room later~

"H-Hi, Gamzee!"

He's sitting up and smiling in a bed (you figure he must've been moved into the bed for the daytime). You grin and rush over to the bedside, laughing like an idiot. You're glad to see him awake and okay and able to _talk _to you.

"Heya Tavbro! How ya feeling, dude?" You ask as you climb up it sit across from him.

"Oh, uh, I-I'm okay! The doctors say I should be out of the, uh, hospital soon! H-How are you?"

You hug him tight, trying to avoid getting whacked in the face by your friend's huge horns. Luckily, Tavros tilted his head away, so planting your chin in his shoulder didn't result in a broken nose. "I'm doin' so much better now that you're all okay, Tavbro!" You can't see him smile, but you know it's there as he hugs you back. "So… your legs…"

He pulls away and flushes a light brown, "Uhh… Well, the doctors said that there may be a few ways I c-could maybe, uh, get my legs back. B-But my parents don't think we can get anything too fancy so I, uh, will… probably end up in a wh-wheelchair…" His face gets more and more sad the more he explains, and when he's finished, you look outside the room to see your dad, Mr. and Mrs. Nitram, and the doctor talking. The doctor is expressionless as she talks, Mr. and Mrs. Nitram look pretty upset and worried, while your dad looks like he's thinking really hard about something. He has his thinking look on. A look he always gets when he really needs to think about something. You can only hope they're not talking about something terrible.

But your attention is drawn back to Tavros as the first few brown tears roll down his cheeks. He's shaking and whimpering and all you can do is awkwardly pull him into your lap, put his face in your chest, and stroke his little Mohawk as he cries out all his fears and worries and sadness.

"I-It's not fair, Gamzee! It's just n-not fair!" He cries into your shirt, "I-I wanted to do so much! W-We were g-gonna do s-so much! Now it's a-all gone and I'll n-never be like you o-or the others and I'll n-never be able t-to be with y-you or the o-others like we u-used to! I-I'll get l-left behind! You'll all l-leave me behind! Why, G-Gamzee? Why do m-my legs have to n-not work? Why c-can't I g-get the stuff th-that'll fix my legs? Why? W-Why me!" He sobs into your shirt, and you cling to him tighter. You hold him closer and you think the same questions, but come up with no answers.

You gather up all your strength and prepare to tell your best friend that everything he thinks is wrong.

"Tavros, it's not fair. It isn't fair at all. You didn't deserve to have any of this happen. But Tavbro, we're not gonna leave you behind. I'll never leave you behind, Tavbro. We'll make it work no matter what happens. We'll find new ways to play, and it'll be just like we were before. None of us will forget you, we all care too much about you to let that happen. I…I dunno why they can't get the stuff that'll fix your legs, or why any of this happened to you. But you'll be okay, Tavros. You'll be okay. And if you're not, I'll help you. We'll make it okay, Tavbro."

He dries his eyes and nose and looks up at you questioningly, and you just smile and nod.

He starts to smile, which makes you smile wider, and soon it's become a kind of competition for who can smile the biggest and you're both laughing and you know the message got across. He doesn't say thank you, but you know he's grateful.

You then hear what sounds like a stampede in the hall, and as soon as you two turn towards the door, chaos breaks loose.

All of your friends, every single one of them, is there, and they're all crowding around the bed asking if Tavros is okay, how he feels, if he's bored, if they can touch his stumpy legs, and when he'll be back to normal. Nepeta, Feferi, and John brought him gifts –Nepeta brought him her favorite stuffed kitty, Feferi brought him a little puzzle, and John brought him a hand drawn card signed by all of them (save Gamzee of course) and with a picture of Tavros smiling under a rainbow.

You turn to an overjoyed Tavros, and you know things will be alright for now.

~The next afternoon~

"Tavros Nitram?"

"Y-Yes?"

"It appears that someone has kindly paid for the prototype prosthetics for your legs."

"W-Which means…?"

"We're going to give you special fake legs that will allow you to walk like normal. We'll have a specialist ready with the legs in about three days, and you should be able to have them attached the same day should your parents accept the treatment."

Tavros's parents looked shocked and overjoyed, agreeing right away and nearly skipping after the doctor to get papers after hugging and cheering with their son, who looked absolutely astounded. He looks at you with absolute wonder mixed with so much glee it nearly made him glow. You hugged him and congratulated him and chattered excitedly with him before your dad tugged on your hand, saying it was time to go home. You promised to see him with his new legs as you and your dad waved goodbye and left.

As you and your dad walk out to the parking lot, he looks over at you and winks. You know what it means and it fills you with happiness.

You wink back.

For once, you're positive everything will be okay.


End file.
